Saturday, May 24, 2014

Chukyo TV Bridgestone Ladies Open Saturday: Sun-Ju Ahn Leads after Utterly Inconclusive Moving Day

Sun-Ju Ahn fired her 2nd-straight 69, this one bogey-free to take the 36-hole lead at the Chukyo TV Bridgestone Ladies Open, but with everyone who made the cut no more than 7 shots behind her, it's really hard to say who's got the best shot at victory tomorrow.

Is it 18-year-old amateur Kotone Hori, who went -5 and bogey-free over her last 13 holes today to catch Na-Ri Kim (67 highlighted by 4 birdies in a row on the back 9), recent U.S. Women's Open qualifier Misuzu Narita (6-birdie 69), and 1st-round co-leader Akane Iijima (3-birdie 71) only 1 shot behind Ahn?

Is it 22-time winner on tour Sakura Yokomine, whose 4-birdie 71 was not nearly as impressive as veteran Yuko Saitoh's 6-birdie 67, but did allow her to catch 1st-round co-leaders Ritsuko Ryu and Phoebe Yao only 2 shots back of Ahn?

Is it Ji-Hee Lee, Ji-Yai Shin, Rikako Morita, Onnarin Sattayabanphot, Mayu Hattori or others only 3 off the pace?

How about Momoko Ueda, Miki Saiki, Erina Hara, or Yukari Baba at -2?

Or veteran Young Kim or rugrat Ai Suzuki at -1?

Or Mi-Jeong Jeon, Shiho Oyama, and company at E?

Why not Natsuka Hori or Esther Lee at +1?  Heck, how about 15-year-old amateur Otoha Yoshi?  She's got as good a chance of anyone heading out early tomorrow of going nuts and putting pressure on the leaders....

Stranger things have happened!  Let's see what actually does this time....  All we know right now is that young guns Kumiko Kaneda, Mamiko Higa, Ayaka Watanabe, Mami Fukuda, and Miho Mori can't win:  they're not playing, as they missed the cut, just like Yumiko Yoshida, Teresa Lu, Rui Kitada, and Bo-Bae Song did.

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